Fresh Cut

The weather man says we have some cool days ahead ~ giving me the perfect excuse to quit the driving around and get back to the business of making art. The sun pours through the window in the morning so that's when I do my best coloring.


I'm working on several series at once in order to have enough on hand for the holidays. Orchids are by far my most popular botanical and I sold out of those a while back. There are several more in the works that will be up and running on Etsy soon.


The three bulbs pictured below are from a series of fall crocuses that are brand new. They feature pieces of pages from some old comic books from India that I ran across a while back. They illustrate the life of Buddha in comic book form and are reincarnated here as botanical papercuttings!


Please stop by my new shop on Etsy if you haven't done so already. There is a little photo album in the column to the right that provides you a direct link to that site. If you enjoy browsing handmade treasures and learning about the people who make them then you'll enjoy shopping there. It's fun and easy to use ~ you're bound to make some new friends!

Inquiry-based Inspiration

A while back, I got the urge to seek out some resources to help broaden my understanding of plant life and nature. As a former botany student (way back when) I enjoyed learning about plant structure, form, and systematics. My knowledge has waned a bit in the intervening years and, honestly, I wanted to get my hands on a microscope again.

Living not far from Washington DC, the obvious choice is visiting the Museum of Natural History. Before jumping in the car, I visited their website to see if they offered a resource room of any sort and what kind of credentials you needed for access. Voila! They offer a free, hands-on research facility, the Naturalist Center, located in Leesburg, VA ~ a tad closer than DC and I don't even have to drive downtown! It's open to everyone, free of charge, lots of parking. Microscope included!

What you encounter when you walk through the door, aside from the gracious staff, is a kid- and family-friendly activity room chock full of natural objects to touch and learn about. And then, there's the research library: endless cabinets of wonder:




It's hands-on ~ but there are proper ways of touching this stuff without ruining it for the next guy. The staff and volunteers will lead you through easy guidelines for opening drawers and not petting polar bears with the palm of your hand, etc.

They offer a sizable botany library and plenty of herbarium specimens to examine and photograph. For me, it's like a dream come true. It was all so amazing that the next thing I knew, I was filling out a volunteer application form ~ and have been going back every Thursday to help out. My current task is to frame the scientific illustrations donated by Johns Hopkins students using found or free materials ~ and to try and remember to get some reading in!